Environmental Factors

Environmental factors are the green criteria that federal contracting officers must weave into procurement decisions—everything from energy efficiency and recyclability to lifecycle emissions and environmental compliance. They're not optional add-ons. Since Treasury Board updated the Policy on Green Procurement in 2018, these considerations have become mandatory elements in evaluating value for money across government contracts.

How It Works

The framework sits in the Supply Manual, specifically Chapter 1's Green Procurement Policy and Chapter 3, section 3.65. Here's the thing: the policy operates within a lifecycle management approach, meaning you're not just looking at the sticker price of a product or service. You're assessing its environmental footprint from resource extraction through manufacturing, use, and eventual disposal. Chapter 3.65 explicitly states that "departments must consider opportunities to advance the protection of the environment and support sustainable development," and that "contracting officers must consider green procurement in the preparation of solicitation documents and resulting contracts."

In practice, this means building environmental criteria directly into your RFPs and evaluation matrices. When PSPC or any department issues a tender, they're required to identify where green considerations apply. This might look like specifying minimum energy efficiency ratings, requiring recycled content percentages, or evaluating bidders based on their Environmental Attributes of the Supplier. The 2024 update to the Greening Government Strategy reinforced this direction, committing the federal government to net-zero emissions by 2050—which cascades down into individual procurement decisions.

The Directive on Public Money adds teeth by requiring consideration of lifecycle costs and environmental impacts alongside traditional financial metrics. This shifts the calculus. A cheaper printer that guzzles energy and uses non-recyclable cartridges might actually score lower than a pricier model with better environmental performance when you factor in total ownership costs and environmental externalities. Departments like DND and SSC are increasingly applying these criteria to everything from IT equipment to vehicle fleets.

Key Considerations

• Lifecycle thinking changes your math: Don't just compare purchase prices. Energy consumption over a product's lifespan, disposal costs, and environmental remediation can dwarf initial savings from choosing the cheapest option.

• Documentation matters for evaluation: Bidders need to provide evidence of environmental claims—third-party certifications like EPEAT or Energy Star ratings, emissions data, recycled content percentages. Vague sustainability statements won't cut it when you're scoring proposals against defined green criteria.

• It's integrated, not separate: Environmental factors aren't evaluated in isolation. They're part of the overall value-for-money assessment, which can make scoring complex when balancing multiple weighted criteria against technical merit and price.

• Requirements vary by commodity: Green considerations for IT hardware look different from those for construction services or janitorial supplies. The Supply Manual gives you principles, but you'll need to identify category-specific environmental standards relevant to what you're buying.

Related Terms

Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business, Environmental Attributes of the Supplier, Best Value

Sources

• Supply Manual - Chapters 1 and 3.65: Green Procurement Policy and Strategy

• Office of the Procurement Ombud - Best Value in Procurement

• Hill Notes - Socially Responsible Purchasing by Canada's Federal Government

When drafting your next solicitation, check Chapter 3.65 early in the process. Retrofitting green criteria after your evaluation framework is set rarely works well.